Sarah Rush Yoga

03/11/2025

From November 2025

02/10/2025

Man that was good. Just done yoga on a roof in Barcelona.

I practise yoga most days but don’t get to class enough - it’s magic being with others, breathing and moving together and despite not understanding a word the teacher said I always leave feeling full of hope. If we all did yoga there’d be a lot less friction.

Our theme for October is hope. Not the kind of hope that floats above reality like a wishful thought or naïve optimism but as a conscious choice in how we choose to show up in the world. Working on warrior poses to build strength, backbends to open our hearts and forward folds to surrender and let go of control. Every pose is a chance to meet ourselves again. This is where hope lives—not in the s**t show playing out there but in the courage to choose how we respond in this moment - right here right now.

In a world where despair can feel louder than hope, it’s easy to think of it as a nice idea but hope is one of our greatest strengths. Hope is the courage to breathe deeply even when the air feels heavy and you don’t know which way to turn. Hope is not passive - it’s a practice of remembering that you belong to something larger than you and you can trust in it’s unfolding. With each new breath we have a chance to begin again
and in this way it’s a practice of hope.

Back next week for full timetable plus a pop up moon class on Wednesday in the beautiful

To book a Southampton class see here https://www.sarahrushyoga.com/book-online

18/09/2025

As I’m using the themes of Autumn for my classes at the moment I’m noticing the phrase “letting go “ sneaking in a bit too often which I’m hoping to stop. I hear it a lot in yoga classes let go of this, let go of that let go of all that doesn’t serve you blah blah blah. If only eh?

Right now I’m experiencing so much anger - the state of the world, some highly annoying family members (it’s never me) and underlying grief which is in the mix. I wish it was that easy to breathe it all out and let it go but it isn’t.

Each morning I set the intention to but, like the autumn leaves in the wind , memories, feelings, and stories swirl up again so maybe the best practice isn’t to let go but to let be instead. Just accept sometimes things feel s**t but trust that it won’t always be this way.
So the practice this autumn is not a dramatic letting go, but a soft presence with what is loosening. To breathe into the ache instead of pushing it away. To trust that what clings will eventually release in its own sweet way. To walk gently with ourselves, as the trees do—quietly, leaf by leaf, surrendering when the time is right.

This too can be our spiritual practice: not forcing release, but softening into life’s natural rhythm of holding and loosening, falling and returning.

As Jeff Foster says

Forget about ‘transcending’ the body.
Love it instead!
Let go of the idea of ‘letting go’.
Instead, let love go deep into the tender places, the parts that ache.
Breathe into your sadness. Let your fear move deep within.
Bow to your uncertainty.
There is an untouchable place in you that fearlessly allows itself to be touched.
Here, even your unworthiness has worth!
And that old feeling that you are unloveable? It is loveable here!
There is so much room in you, friend.
So much room.
There is nothing wrong with you,
including the idea
that there is something wrong with you.
So stop trying to love yourself;
simply be the Self that loves.

And if you fancy NOT letting go in a beautifully crafted yoga practice for the Autumn Equinox there’s still spaces on Sunday at 6pm 6-7.15

15/09/2025

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished” Lao Tzu

As the wheel of the year turns toward autumn and the trees remind us about the nature of impermanence we will be incorporating these themes into our practices this week as we work on tree pose, connecting to our roots along with breathing practices that help us to ground into Autumn.

When we live in rhythm with seasonal cycles we can bring this into our spiritual practice. Autumn, especially, is the season of turning inward just as we do in our meditation and yoga. The harvest is over. The work is done. Now comes the time to return to the root. Autumn invites us back home to drop away our layers and trust that we are still enough.

Trees show us that there is strength in stillness. That resting is not laziness, but preparation and the growth that matters most often happens in silence, beneath the surface.

If you like to journal consider

What am I holding that is ready to be released?
What would it feel like to let go without fear?
What lies beneath the surface of all this letting go?

Sign up for my newsletter if you’d like an Autumn Equinox ritual pack delivered to your inbox
https://www.sarahrushyoga.com/contact

13/09/2025

I’ve been part of the peace movement in one way or another for 40 years now—ever since I joined CND at 17. Back then, the slogan was One World, and I’ve never stopped believing in it. Because the truth is, we have far more in common than we do differences.

And yet, after all this time, it’s heartbreaking how much further from world peace we seem.
Five months back, I returned to anti-poverty work, and what I’ve seen already is staggering. So many are suffering—truly suffering—in a country overflowing with wealth hoarded by a tiny few at the top. It’s obscene.
When I first moved to London, I worked on a project supporting asylum seekers. The stories I heard will stay with me forever:
A homeless man showing me bayonet wounds, infected and untreated. A mother who escaped a war zone with two of her children on a rescue helicopter—sharing a photo of the daughter she had to leave behind, the one she saw being shot as she ran into the woods.

I felt physically sick today seeing the streets filled with Tommy Robinson supporters. Imagine how satisfying that must be for the ultra-wealthy—the tax-dodging elite—watching those at the bottom turn on others even more vulnerable than themselves.
This isn’t the world we dreamed of when we marched for peace. But it’s not too late to remember who the real enemies are.

Let’s stop tearing each other down. Let’s unite—not in hate, but in peace, in justice, in solidarity. One world, still. Always.

09/09/2025

Ah, Spidey — the ultimate symbol of balance.
No matter the chaos around him, he stays centred, grounded, and focused. He’s learned a lot from me.

This week in class, we’re channeling the same - simple flows and steady breath.
Each moment an invitation to return to your centre—again and again.

06/09/2025

02/09/2025

Timetable from September 2025

Also random dates for yoga in alignment with the moon on (mainly) Thursdays 🌖

01/09/2025

I am soooooo ready to come back to some routines as we ease into September and this week sees us coming back to regular classes as well as a restart to the pop up moon sessions on Thursday eve in Southampton Cemetery - see picture above of it’s neon loveliness

As September arrives, there’s a shift in the air and as the light softens we may notice a craving for stillness and a return to centre after the heat and expansion of summer.

In Chinese medicine, this is a specific season known as Late Summer - a transitional phase governed by the earth element. It’s a time associated with digestion, nourishment, and stability—both physical and emotional. We’re invited to come back to the body, eat grounding nourishing food and start to slow down

The Autumn Equinox is just around the corner—a point of balance between light and dark and September carries that same energy: a bridge between the high heat of summer and the cool descent of Autumn - time to recalibrate and gently shift from doing to being. From scattering our energy to calling it home.

This is the perfect time to come back to yoga and our practices this month will be focused on soothing, grounding, and rebalancing—giving the nervous system a chance to reset, and the body-mind space to realign. Expect nurturing movement, longer exhales, earthy postures, and moments of deep stillness inviting you home as we align with the turning of the season—moving with intention, not urgency.

So whether you’ve been away or simply navigating the busy fullness of summer, welcome back. September invites us all to re-root, reconnect, and rest into rhythm again. Your mat is waiting and I’m so glad you’re here ❤️

To book a Southampton class see here https://www.sarahrushyoga.com/book-online

26/08/2025

I’ve been so lucky to take most of the summer off to give myself time to grieve but instead distracting myself with as many trips away as possible. As I land back home to plan next term ( which resumes on Saturday) wham - here comes anxiety - my constant companion. Always there to tell me I’m not ready/not good enough/forgotten everything and no one will come anyway and any other s**t scenario it can conjure up.

We wake up with it. Go to sleep with it. Pretend we’re fine with it and so snxiety becomes normal, even though it feels crappy . That’s the trap — thinking something so uncomfortable is just part of who we are.
When we start to slow down our thinking, take a breath and recognise it as anxiety that tiny bit of space between us and the feeling is everything. It’s not about making it disappear or fixing ourselves. It’s about noticing it without feeding it.

That’s where yoga’s magic is - not because it’s a cure, but because it brings us back into now. I can’t breathe for tomorrow. I can’t stretch for next week. I can only be here. Present. With grief, joy or whatever else is unfolding in the moment rather than flying off into the next s**tstorm that hasn’t even happened.

Yoga doesn’t make the anxiety vanish. But it teaches us how to stay in the moment as it arises. How to soften around the fear instead of clenching tighter. That’s enough - we don’t have to silence anxiety forever - just learn to hear it and not obey it. To trust ourselves, in our breath, and our ability to show up — one breath, one pose, one present moment at a time.

As I’ve been off social media for the summer I will OF COURSE be punished and ironically my anxieties will probably come true as only two people will see this post. So if that’s you - I’m here next week Monday and Tuesday in the home studio or at the beautiful on Thursday for moon yoga. It would be fab to see you.

The my London pals I’ll see you for moon and gong in fellowship square, Walthamstow on Saturday 6th

To book a Southampton class see here https://www.sarahrushyoga.com/book-online